Automobile door latch



July 28, 1925. 1548,00]

E. G, FURRY AUTOMOBILE Doon LATCH Fied July 3, 1925 A TT ORNE Y.

Patented July v28, 1925.

UNITED STATES IinIvIoND e. IUImY-`oEfBRIDGEWATER, VIRGINIA.

AU'roMoBILE nooRLAToH. Y

Applicati'ml filed-'July 1923. Serial No. 649,361.

To all whom t may concern: Y

Be it known that I, EDMOND G. FURRY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Bridgewater, in the county of Rockingham and State of Virginia, have invented crtain new and useful Improvements `in Automobile Door Latches, of which the following is a specification. v

Broadly speaking, my invention relates to latching mechanism for quickly and conveniently engaging and disengaging two members` movable relatively to each other, and is specially well adapted, among other things, as an automobile door latch.

My object is to provide a device of this character which willbe easy and simple and certain in its operation, and in which the bolt will always remainin its withdrawn position, out of the way ofthose passing in and out through the door, so long as the door is open, but so arranged that whenlthe door is shut, the bolt Vwill be automatically released and thrust into engagement with `the keeper; Anotherobj ect is to so-constructthe device thatsimply closing the-door will positively release-the bolt from its withdrawn position, and thereby avoid all necessity of slamming the door in order to make sure of hav- -ing it securely latched.

vA further ob]ect 1s to provide a device of this character so simple and durable in its construction, and composed of sofewl parts, that there will be practically nothing to get out of order. Y

yOther objects will appearV in the subjoined description.

'An important feature of the invention lconsists in an arrangement by whichthe bolt, when withdrawn,is automatically'engaged and held in its withdrawn position, by the' latch casing, the keeper being-provided withmeans `for engaging'and releasing the bolt-from its withdrawn positionfwhen the' dooris'closed. l

The invention consistssin certain novel features of construction and v,arrangement of parts, as will be hereinafter described .v and claimed, reference beingfhad to 'the'. accompanying drawings in which :---`v Y. Y Fig. 1 is a perspective .view .ofl the keeper, as it would appear. in operative position at one side of an automobile-doorway. Fig. 2 is a side elevationA showing the internal construction of the latch. Fig. Sis a horizontal section showing the latch proper and the keeper as they appear relatively to each other lwhen the door is approaching its closed position, just before the bolt has been tripped, the sectionvbeing taken at aboutr the point indicated by the line 8-3 in Fig. 2. Fig. 4t is a similar view showing the relative position of the parts after the bolt has been tripped; and Figs.v 5 and 6' are perspective views of the casing and bolt, respectively.

Referring further to the drawings, the numeral 1- indicates the casing which is provided with openings 2 for securing the same to the door with which it is to be used. vThe operating lever 3, at its lower end, is pivoted to the casing by the pivot 4, (as shown in Fig. 1),',and between its ends to the bolt 5 by means of the pivot', so that when the free upper end of said lever is moved lback and forth the bolt is'moved longitudinally inward and outward, in the usual manner. A spring 7 presses the rear end of the bolt and imparts to it a tendency'to automati cally move forward to its operative position. This spring is heldin position by supporting Vpins or standards 8 and 9. The casing 1s provided at its outer edge 4with the usual l.

right-angled portion 10 yhaving an opening 11 therein for the passage. of the forward end of the bolt 5, and'this openingis of suicient width to allow the'forward end ofthe bolt to have considerable lateralplay therein, the pivot 6 at the rear end of the bolt being arranged to permit this movement.

Near the forward end of the bolt on its inner-side next the casing, said bolt is provided with a vprojecting portion 12 which provides a shoulderl at its forward side, as clearly shown in Fig. 6, and the casing at the'inner side of the opening 11 has an inturned portion 14 adapted toengage said shoulder, as will now beexplained.y On the outer side of said bolt is a leaf spring 15 -secured lat its inner end to the bolt by the 'pivot 6 and bent to spring outwardly at its Vouterend, but limited in its outwardmovementLby the, staple 16, whichgstaple alsov vcorrespondingly limits the` p lateral outward movement of the `forward endfof the bolt 5.

f From this arrangement, itv will beseen that .the springv 15 will normally press the bolt Ilaterallyiinward into engagement with the `main section lof the casing 1, and when the bolt 5 is drawn inwardly, the shoulder 13 will fallv in behind the inturned portion 14 of the casing, which will hold the bolt 1n its withdrawnposition against the action of thev spring 7 till some other force is applied to disengage the shoulder 13 from the catch 14,

the method of doing which will now be ex-VV plained. The keeper 17 which is rigidly secured by screws 18 to the proper side of the door opening in position to co-operate with the bolt 5, is provided at its inner side with a right-angled extension 17 a which carries a rigid tripping stud 19 projecting outwardly at the inner side of the keeper opening 20. From Figs. 3, 4, and 5, it will be seen that the bolt opening 11 in the rightangled extension 10 of the casing 1 extends around to the inside catch 14 which (when the bolt is withdrawn from the keeper to permit the door to open) engages the shoulder 13 to hold the bolt in its withdrawn position while the door is open. But when the door is closed, the tripping` stud 19 will strike the forward end of the bolt and force the shoulder 13 out of engagement with the catch 14, whereupon the spring 7 will shoot the bolt forward into the opening 2O of the keeper, which will hold the door securely latched until the bolt is again withdrawn by means of the operating lever 3. It will be` noticed that the length of the spring 15 and the relative positions of the tripping stud 19 and the shoulder 13 are such that when the bolt is shot forward, the spring at Vone side of the bolt and the tripping stud at the other side, both form stops for the boltv on opposite sides thereof, the resistance of the spring being borne by the inner end of the bolt at the pivot 6, while the resistance offered by thev trip stud is, of course, at the other side of the bolt and at its forward end. Furthermore, when the parts are in the position just described, the bolt is also pressed Yby the spring 15 into engagement with the inner end of the catch 14, the catch being at the forward end of the bolt and the spring connected to the rear end thereof, so that the inner end of the bolt is pressed laterally inward against the operating lever 3; from all of which it will be seen that the parts are held in such constant frictional engagement with each other as to practically preclude the possibility of rattling, even when the parts are worn, and the door fits easily in its opening.

When desired, the upper part of the casing may becut away as indicated at 21, and the operating lever may have a bent section 22a extending inwardly through this cutaway portion to make the lever operable from the inner side of the door instead of from the top edge thereof. However, this is purely optional with the manufacturer.

The bolt 5 is securely braced against severe lateral strain or sudden jerks by the staple 16, which also forms a bearing for the spring 15. Y

The operation of the device is apparent from the foregoing. When the bolt 5 is withdrawn by the operating lever 3, the spring 15 forces the shoulder 13 in behind the catch 14, which holds the boltA withdrawn. When the door is shut the trip stud 19 strikes the forward end of the bolt and discngages the shoulder 13 from the catch 14, which permits the spring 7 at the rear end of the bolt to shoot the bolt into the opening 20 of the keeper to latch the door.

Hence it will be seen that I have provided a device of very simple and durable construction, since not counting the screws and pins, the whole device is composed of only eight pieces, and two of these-*the tripping stud 19 and the staple l-are rigidly secured respectively to the keeper and the casing, so that the movable parts of tlie device number only 6 in the embodiment of the invention here shown.

lhile the principles of my invention are of broad application where two members are to be held in latching engagement with each other, I have only shown and described the invention in this application as applied to an automobile door, but, of course, do not limit myself to any one use of the device, or to any single application of the principles disclosed.

Having now described my invention, and shown one practical embodiment of the same, what I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is 1. A device of the character described for latching a movable member toI a stationary member, comprising a keeper' secured to the side of the stationary member facing the movable member when the two are in operative relation to each other; a casing secured to the movable member and carrying a bolt with a shoulder spaced inwardly from the end of the bolt on the forward side thereof; a catch on the forward side of the casing for engaging said shoulder when the bolt is in its withdrawn position; a spring for pressing said bolt longitudinally outward to shoot the bolt when disengaged from the catch; a staple rigidly secured to the forward side of the casing with the bolt received in said rigid staple between the same and said forward side of the casing; a spring secured at its rear end to the rear end of the bolt and passing through the staple between the same and the bolt to press the bolt away from the staple and into engagement with the forward side of the casing to force the shoulder on the bolt in behind said catch on said side of the casing when the bolt is in its withdrawn position,

said keeper on the stationaryrmember havi' ing a right-angled extension turned outwardly at its inner side to form a stop for the movable member when brought into operative relation to the stationary member, said extension being provided with a stud extending outwardly parallel with the main body of the keeper in the path of the outer end of the bolt for engaging the forward side of the same and forcing said shoulder out of engagement with said catch when the casing and the keeper are brought into operative relation to each other, whereby to enable said first named' spring to shoot the bolt into engagement with the keeper; said second named spring carried by the bolt between the same and the rigid staple being adapted to abut against the end wall of the casing to form a stop for properly limiting the longitudinal forward movement of the bolt when shot by its spring.

2. A device of the character described for latching two members together, one stationary and the other movable, comprising a keeper secured to the stationary one of said members, and a casing secured to the'movable member, saidV casing carrying a bolt with a shoulder o-n its forward side next the casing, said shoulder being spaced from the end of the bolt, and a catch on the forward side of the casingfor engaging said shoulder when the bolt is in its withdrawn position; a spring for pressing said bolt longitudinally outward to shoot the bolt when disengaged from the catch; a second spring for pressing the bolt laterally toward said catch to force said shoulder in behind said catch kwhen the bolt is in its withdrawn position;

and a stud on the keeper inthe path of the forward end of the bolt for engaging the forward side of the bolt and forcing said shoulder out of engagement with said catch when the casing and the keeper are brought into operative position relatively to each other, whereby to permit said first named spring to shoot the bolt into engagement with the keeper;'said tripping stud on the keeper being arranged to engage the shoulder on the bolt toform a stop for the bolt on the forward side thereof; said Second named spring being attached to the bolt and carried thereby, and having its forward end adapted to abut against the casing to form a stop for the bolt on its rear side; whereby the bolt is provided with a stop on both its front and rear sides to limit the forward movement thereof, when shot by its spring; and whereby thebolt is also held against any tendency to rock laterally at its rear end.

In testimony whereof I aix my signature.

EDMOND G. FURRY. 

